Chicken Fried Quinoa

Happy Monday! I didn't have a lot of time this weekend to prepare my food for the week, so I went with quick, easy, and cheap. I didn't want to fall back into the habit of eating out that leads to expanding my waistline. This tried and true Pinterest recipe never fails and is deeeelicious! If you are a fan of Chinese food, then you've no doubt ordered chicken fried rice and wished you could eat it every day. But it's full of salt and who knows what else, so it doesn't bode well for an every day meal. Enter quinoa. If you haven't tried it before, I highly recommend it. It tastes similar to rice, but has more protein and nutrients than empty carbs. Check out this article from Prevention Magazine to see the differences in brown rice vs quinoa. (Also I do love brown rice. If a recipe calls for rice, I like to pick brown over white)

Did I mention it's a crock pot meal?! You just throw it all in there and cook for an hour or two! Enjoy! 

Ingredients:

2 cups cooked quinoa (or brown rice)

4 tablespoons butter

5 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce

2 tablespoons worchestershire sauce

1 small onion (I prefer 5-6 diced green onions to eliminate the onion-y flavor)

salt and pepper to taste

3 eggs

Rotisserie Chicken (or canned if you prefer)- cut up enough to fill up 1-2 cups

I toss in frozen peas as well

sesame seeds for garnish

Throw all the ingredients in the crock pot, and then crack the three eggs on top. Cover and heat on medium for two hours (or one hour on high). I'm antsy, so I usually stir every 20-30 minutes to make sure all the juices get mixed up perfectly. Since I'm usually cooking for one, this dish can provide leftovers for about 3-4 days. 

Turkey Burgers & Sweet Potato Fries

Happy Monday! Yesterday was fun day of shopping and meal planning for the week- plus a mani/pedi! I have a crazy week coming up with meetings after work, picking up a friend from the airport, work outs, and a dinner party at my house on Thursday. (I'm making jambalaya! I'll definitely share that with you) So I needed to prepare some grab and go grub yesterday. I went ahead and pulled the leftover tilapia out of the freezer so I could blacken a few pieces tonight when I get home to enjoy with some salad or zucchini noodles at night. But what about lunch? Turkey burgers! I made some sweet potato fries to go with them last night, and can wrap them up in a wheat tortilla with some spinach for lunch.

That doesn't look half bad! For the burgers, I got a pound of ground turkey meat the grocery store, some green onions, some garlic, some parsley, and a packet of ranch dressing mix. I mixed all of the ingredients into a bowl and then shaped out four patties. I sprayed my frying pan with Pam and got to cooking. I'm an impatient cooker, so I must have flipped them a hundred times. It took about 20 minutes for them to cook to my liking. I added a whole wheat tortilla and an avocado for kicks.

While all this was going on, I had the sweet potato fries baking in the oven. I cut up a medium sized sweet potato into "fry shapes" and stirred them in a bowl with three tablespoons of olive oil, and some salt and pepper. I laid them out on a baking sheet (also sprayed with Pam) to where they weren't touching and backed them for about 30 minutes at 350 degrees. That's it!

Ingredients:
Turkey Burgers-
1 lb ground turkey meat
3-4 chopped green onions
2 tablespoons fresh parsley
3 minced garlic cloves
1 packet ranch dressing mix

Sweet Potato Fries-
1 medium sweet potato
2-3 tablespoons of olive oil
pinch of salt and pepper

Mad for Plaid

As we all patiently wait for cooler fall temps, magazines and designers are throwing amazing fall fashions our way. Today alone, I have seen a red and black plaid shirt from three different designers. And I like it. How comfy and versatile does this top look?

This top goes perfectly with leather pants (seen above), skinny jeans, black jeans, and even tucked into a skirt. Can you imagine how comfy this would be under a puffy vest going to meet your girlfriends for a lazy Saturday brunch?! Kate Spade Saturday offered their version of the top as did Old Navy. If you've never shopped the Saturday website, I highly recommend it. It's Kate Spade's weekend collection. More casual than her usual designs and a little less expensive. No matter what your price point, I think you'll have no problem stocking up on flannel and plaid this fall. What do you think? Does it remind you too much of the Brawny man, or are you excited to try this trend out?

I'm all over it, myself! Also- what an easy Halloween costume idea for the fellas!

Blackened Fish Tacos

I'm on Day 21 of my 24 Day Challenge, and I am starting to crave other meats than salmon and chicken. So I found a recipe last night for blackened fish tacos. They were amazing and so simple to make. Tilapia was my choice as it is low in fat but high in protein. Plus it just tastes good and isn't as expensive as other white fish at the seafood counter. Four filets cost me less than $10. And those filets were huge! I ended up cutting them in half giving me eight pieces. I cooked four, and then froze the other four for next week. The picture below is ONE filet that I sliced in half!

I poured about 1.5 tablespoons of olive oil into the pan and turned the heat up to high. I then lightly dusted the filets (on both sides) with blackening seasoning, and then cooked the fish for about four to five minutes on each side. That's it!

Don't those look yummy?! For the tacos, I used a whole wheat tortilla and smashed up an avocado for a little extra flavor. This really only took about 10 minutes to prepare. Such an easy weeknight meal!

Ingredients:
Four fish filets
Olive oil
Blackening seasoning
Whole wheat tortillas
Avocado

Be Happy, Be Helpful

I ran across this little diddy on Pinterest last night (seriously what did we do with our time before that website?). It really echoed what I've been thinking about over the past few months. What if we quit competing against one another since we're really all in this together? Just something to think about. Be nice to each other this weekend and have a fun one!

Colors I'm Craving

While Radiant Orchid was declared the Pantone color of 2014, I think another color is really going to make waves this fall. Gray. Huh? Gray is so boring... and gray. Not so, my friends. We all have way more black than we should in our closets because it's so versatile, flattering, and it goes with everything. Gray does the same thing. I think it's so sharp and can be dressed up or down. Check out this bag from Kate Spade. I'm in love with this bag. So simple and clean. You can wear it with everything!

Now can you imagine how gorgeous that would against a bright radiant orchid sweater. I'm dying. Check out this simple outfit I found on Pinterest last night. Don't you want to grab coffee and kick ass in this outfit? You could throw a white or black blazer over this sweater to instantly dress it up even more.

If you're nervous to dip your toes in the gray area, then might I suggest literally dipping your fingers and toes into this nail polish  to test the waters. 

Now go forth and try a new color! Pair it with black, white, orchid, soft pinks, reds and gorgeous deep blues! What colors are you excited to wear this fall?

Fall Transitions

If you're like me, the beginning of fall brings a little apprehension. Those new sweaters are amazing, but it's hot as hell through about October here in the South. It's September, so white jeans with a flowy top and sandals don't really seem appropriate either. What's a girl to do? I like mixing and matching summer and fall clothes as much as possible. I came across this dress in an email blast this morning from Old Navy. This is the perfect transition dress for work. 

While it looks great with sandals, I think it would look perfect with some ankle booties, and maybe even a light scarf. The boxy shape gives way to the bigger silhouettes we tend to wear in the fall/winter. The color suggests fall leaves and Halloween. It's a polyester mix, so it's not too light but it's not heavy like wool either. This is definitely a piece that you could wear 7 days a week. Pair it with booties and simple jewelry for work, and then add some sandals and layered necklaces for a football party on Saturday. Also, it's completely affordable so buy both colors! When it starts getting cooler, add tights or knee high boots to continue wearing into the winter. What do you think? Do you have any favorite transition pieces?

What I'm Wearing

A lot of girls have been planning their weddings since they were little. Not me. I was planning and executing fashion shows with my dolls. I was cutting out ads from my mother's Vogue and putting together my own look books. My father still likes to say, "You may not have had anywhere to go, but you were dressed for the occasion." I love putting together styles for myself and my friends. My heart skips a beat when I get a text from my besties asking, "What do you think of this with this?" I love everything about it. I think fashion is fun and should be fearless. I have my own style, and think you should too. It's so fun to learn someone's style and incorporate a few trends here and there to compliment an already great look. I'm excited to show you what I'm feeling and what I'm totally crushing on. With New York Fashion Week set to start in a few days, be prepared for some overkill, ha!

Lagniappe

I am laughing way too much at this picture Big Boi from Outkast tweeted a few weeks. It's OutKats, get it?! See cover of Stankonia album if you don't :)

Zucchini Pasta

So in my quest for clean eating, I'm finding that I really don't miss white breads all that much. But I do miss a good pasta dish. I decided to try and find something that would give me the taste and texture of pasta, but without all the refined sugars and starches. Did y'all know you could make pasta out of a gorgeous zucchini?? I may be late to the party, but I am all up in it now. All you need is a zucchini, some olive oil, a little salt and pepper to taste, a saute pan, and a vegetable peeler. The peeler I linked was found at Target this past weekend. It has three different blades so you can use it on all kinds of different produce. I used the julienne blade for this dish to get fatter peels of the zucchini. I think I lied and told my bestie it was $10. The website shows it as costing $14.99, and it's worth every penny. 

I simply started grating the zucchini down over a cutting board, and then scraped all the "pasta" pieces into a mixing bowl when I was finished. I put a large saute pan over medium heat, and put between 1 and 2 tablespoons of olive oil (really depends on how much you want) into the pan. I shook a little seasoning salt (Tony Cachere's of course!) into the bowl of, mixed it up, and then poured into the saute pan. I would cook anywhere between 3-5 minutes depending on how soft you want the pasta. 

It was so good! I had some leftover chicken breasts, so this made the perfect chicken and pasta dish. It really made enough for two servings, so I saved the rest to try tonight. I'm not sure how it holds up on the second day, but I'm sure I'll still gobble it up. I can't wait to try it with shrimp or fish this weekend.

Ingredients:

1 zucchini

1-2 tablespoons Olive Oil

Salt & Pepper to taste 

Let's Eat!

Recently I've been on a clean eating campaign. After a wonderfully gluttonous summer filled with champagne and cheese plates, it's time to get my belly under control. I recently started the Advocare 24 Day Challenge, and am on Day 14. The Challenge is not a diet, it's designed to help you change the way you look at food. I am sticking to veggies, fruits, chicken, fish, and complex carbs. I am avoiding sugars, processed foods, some dairy (I can't give up my skim milk in the mornings) and good ole fashioned junk. So far I am really enjoying the fun of finding new and delicious recipes! I feel great, my skin is clearer, and I've even dropped a few inches! After the initial shock of realizing most of what I was eating was crap, I was terrified that eating clean meant eating boring. Boy was I wrong. Thanks to Pinterest and more recipe sites than I can count, I have found some really great meals. It's really helped when learning to look at food as nourishment rather than "treats." Now, I'm not saying I won't hit up Popeye's for a delicious three piece ever again, but I will plan ahead when the craving for Popeye's hits. If I know that I absolutely must have it for dinner, then I know that I need to keep the rest of my food choices that day as clean and natural as possible. And I don't need to "treat" myself to Popeye's once a week either. So I'm excited to share what I find and hopefully you'll find the fun in cooking like I have. Did I just say cooking was fun? Nerd alert.

About Me

Hello! And welcome to the LC! I started this blog a few years ago with the intention of providing modern day answers to age old etiquette problems. It was originally titled "Mind Your Manners, Y'all." I have had so much fun tackling crusty old etiquette problems with a little humor. Recently I decided to expand the blog and include a few other topics that always keep my attention, food and fashion. These are just a few things that I love, and I hope that you'll have fun reading this blog. I've also added a page called Lagniappe. Down in Louisiana, we use the term Lagniappe to describe "a little something extra." So I hope you'll enjoy the "little extras" I find along the way that make me happy. Thanks for reading!